Construction hands to get medical benefits -Mahendra Singh

-The Times of India

NEW DELHI: Now, lakhs of labourers working on construction sites can avail medical benefits under the labour ministry’s Employee State Insurance (ESI) scheme.

"The Employee State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) has approved extending benefits of the ESI scheme to workers deployed on construction sites from August 1, 2015," said an official.

The decision is seen as a big step by the BJP government to extend social security coverage to a large chunk of unorganized workers.

Earlier, medical benefits under the ESI scheme were available only to employees working in the office of construction companies as they were treated as organized workers. However, a large number of unorganized workers employed by the same companies on construction sites, despite being vulnerable to accidents and diseases, were left uncovered.

The move will ensure that on-site construction workers get benefits of complete medical care (from primary to tertiary medical care), along with a range of cash benefits in times of exigencies of employment injury, death, disablement, maternity and unemployment.

 

Unorganized workers, according to the latest NSSO estimates, account for 82.7% of the total labour force, including a significant share of workers engaged in low income generating activities. Those in the unorganized sector, comprising about 45 crore of the total workforce, do not get adequate labour protection in terms of job security, wages, working conditions, social security and welfare.

Construction sector is the second largest employer, after agriculture. A large portion of workers employed in the construction industry fall under the unorganized sector (89%) and most of them are unskilled.

The ESIC has also started a 24×7 helpline number for insured persons and their family members who wish to seek advice and guidance from casualty/emergency of ESIC hospitals.

Under the ESI scheme, which is regulated by the ESI Act, the government provides full medical care to an insured person and his family from the day he enters insurable employment with no ceiling on the treatment. Besides, it provides for sickness benefits in cash at the rate of 70% of wages to the insured person for a maximum of 91 days in a year, 90% of the insured person’s wage as disablement benefits, 90% as dependent benefit, as well as Rs 10,000 as funeral benefit to the dependents or whoever performs the last rites of the insured person.

The ESIC board has also decided to extend geographic coverage of ESI scheme to 393 districts in the country by April 1, 2016.